Posts from the ‘anthologies and collections’ Category

As of the past few weeks I put together most of my finished fiction into collections. Some of you have been nice enough to pick up my collections but those of you who are interested here are the links that will let you look up my books.

Yup I thought I would toss up a bit of one of the short stories that only a handful of people have seen. My first collection, Gates, has not sold very well. It could be the price, it could be that the publisher did NOTHING when it came to editing and promoting or it could be that I can’t market anything even if I try, but I am sad it hasn’t.

The stories in this collection all have some type of gate between here and there or one reality to the next in them. They range from pure fantasy to horror to a love story to the end of the world. I have received two reviews where they commented about the editing and in an attempt to get them back I contacted the publisher. Looks like they will be holding onto them for another two years unless I can come up with 750 Euros!

So in attempt to try and make some money I thought I would post up excerpts from the tales inside this collection. This one is titled Axe in the Stone is a more classic fantasy tale about the change from one version of the world and the next.

***

Axe in the Stone

By Lisa Williamson

“Where did this come from?”

Sitting, buried in one of the stones of the forest clearing was a large war axe. The blade was embedded in the stone that Juliana usually used to sit and ponder her day. She flitted about the weapon with a concerned look on her face. It wasn’t the fact that there was a large piece of man forged steel sitting in the middle of her glade that bothered her. It was the blood that welled up from around the blade.

At first she had thought it was just left over blood on the blade but as she watched another bead welled up around it from the stone. She hissed as yet another bead came up.

“Man came into the clearing and left that thing.”

Juliana spun about and then smiled. “Hello, Oak. You saw who did this?”

The oak behind the woodland sprite nodded. “Yes. Man came in carrying that and looked about. Man then pulled back like he was going to hit Maple and then he struck rock and staggered off after the flash.”

The sprite looked puzzled for a moment. “After the flash?”

“Yes the flash as the thing entered the stone.” Oak grimaced. “Magic it was, man-magic.”

Juliana nodded, turning back to the strange thing in her grove. “It must be removed,” she said quietly but firmly. “The man must be found and made to remove the blade from the stone. I will not have iron in my grove.” Her eyes flashed with the power behind her statement.

As if called up by name another being entered the grove. He was taller than the average forest dwelling fairy. Almost man tall, he was an oddity in this wood. For he was not a fey at all but a being of another type; not human or troll or Elvin even, he was of older blood indeed. Before the fey had moved to the wood, before the human thought to enter with their weapons of iron there lived a race of beings that were a part of the wood around them. Each and every one of them had something unearthly about them. Even to those of the fey blood they seemed strange and powerful.

Erland was one such being. He liked to spend time in Juliana’s grove, speaking to the trees and the stones. The cry of the chair stone brought him into the grove when others were about. He walked past the flitting fairy woman and gently rested a hand on the stone. “I feel your pain brother stone. I will help you if I can.”

He turned to the fey and the trees. “How did you allow this to happen?”

“Allow? Allow!” shouted the fairy. “I did not allow anything. I was on my rounds when the human entered the grove.”

Erland looked at the fairy woman for a long moment and then turned to the stone once more. “You were right that the blade must be removed but the Man who did this can not do it.” He studied the iron blade with narrowed eyes. Colors swirled in his sight about the blade. “The magic was not his but part of the blade itself.”

Oak spoke up. “Is it one of the OLD blades?”

Juliana looked confused. “One of the what?”

Sighing Erland sat down on the air and pulled a pipe from his pocket. Flicking the end with his thumb he puffed for a moment before speaking. “What Oak is referring to is an ancient weapon made by a people that no longer part of this land. The Crafters they were called by my kind. They were a strange race, much like the Man you saw. But the major difference being that they made magical things as easy as you breath.”

Juliana settled on the ground and listened with huge eyes. “You mean they made such nasty things?”

The forest being nodded, “They did not make them to be nasty but just to make them. They never truly understood the uses that the things they made would be put to. They were innocents in a world filled with warriors. They would make something like this on a whim and give it to the first to pass by and ask for it.”

The little sprite woman shook her head. “How foolish. Did they think that they were safe doing that?”

“No little one. They did not think of danger. For they were totally peaceful beings. When the first of their creations were raised against them they were shocked.”

Erland looked at the small winged woman for a time before answering. “The first time one of their creations were used against them they thought it was a mistake. For they saw the other races as children and they chastised the child who had harmed them. It was a simple tool that had been used for the wrong purpose to their minds. They took the tool back and sent the creature who misunderstood its use far away.” He closed his eyes and puffed away at his pipe for a bit.

***

If you are interested in reading the rest of this tale you can pick up the book at many of the ebook retailers around the web.

I have finished up a simple cover for Mythos of Love. While not as striking as some of my other covers, it is a good, working cover and hopefully people will take a chance on this book.

Yup just changed the font and the color of the text and a bit of placement. So it is finished and ready to go!

As for the next collection, I am tossing between releasing all the Worlds Apart short stories or the Beyond Realities short stories collections. Either of them will need a new story or three to complete. The stories out all ready as some of my older pieces of work. They will of course be edited, like the other collections, revised and commented on. I have had my many short stories out for almost three years now so many of them will be coming down and only be available in these collections.

Okay I said I would put up excerpts. So how about a little from both of the collections to be I mentioned? While I have many more collections in the works, these two are fun, odd and different.

This first one is from Earthquake Unexpected. This tale will be part of the Beyond Realities collection and starts back home in NH. Like most writers I do place stories in places I know. This was inspired by a trip over a bridge during a windstorm and my mind went to its usual odd place.

***

Panting as the vehicle came to rest against the tree, she looked over at her daughter, who was tightly clutching her blanket. “Mommy?”

”Yes, sweetie,” Kelley answered, her voice shaking a bit.

”Why is the big man staring at us like that?”

”What big man?” Kelley looked about to where her daughter was pointing and gasped. There, just beyond the fallen tree, was a giant.

This was not a giant in the way of normal humans. He easily stood taller than the tallest tree still standing. He was covered in moss and dirt and there was a ragged beard on his chin. Mercedes was right, he was a big man and he was staring at them

The giant was staring down at them, as if trying to decide if they were real or not. His moss green eyes were locked on their truck and as she watched he tilted his head and reached for them. “Oh God,” Kelley whispered and tried to put the truck into reverse. The gears made a grinding sound and then the truck stalled.

As the engine sound died the tree giant started to move. Faster than Kelley expected he reacted down and picked up the truck, carefully lifting it over the tree and bringing it to his chest. He cradled the vehicle and its frightened passengers, turned and strode across the landscape, the ground shaking under his feet. “Mommy, did he cause the ground to quake?” The little girl seemed more relaxed than her mother. It could be the way the giant was holding the truck or just the fact that she couldn’t feel the shakes any more. It did not matter to the little girl. She looked about curiously.

”No, honey, I don’t think he caused the earthquake at home.” Kelley reached back to calm down Ruffus. The dog was terrified. The thing holding the truck smelled like a tree to him, but looked like a large human. He lay with his tail down and whimpering.

They all rode in silence after that, as the giant carried them away from the shaking forest. To where Kelley had no idea and she did her best to hide her confusion and fear. She reached out and ran a hand that only shook a little over her daughter’s bright hair.

***

Yeah I did it, I have a giant who might or might not be the cause of an earthquake in of all places, southern NH! I just could not resist and who knows where that tale will go.

Now the other collection, Worlds Apart, is a bit odder still. This collection is where I tend to put my even weirder tales. This little bit of excerpt is from the story Down the Rabbit Hole which was inspired by a Google group and a discussion about the end of the world:

***

The day when she finally gave in to the inevitable was when the wildlife around her started to tell her things. The first time a beaver spoke to her in her head she had thought she had finally gone mad. She had dropped to the ground, sobbed and shook like a child scared of the lightening in the sky, but after a good long cry she shook herself all over and then decided that if she was mad then she would enjoy it. It did not take her friend the beaver long to explain that she was not mad, but that she would never return to the world of her birth.

She sipped the tea in her cup till she drained it dry. Sighing, she pushed herself up from the ground. One thing that the land beneath the Rabbit Hole gave her was a body that was strong and resilient. Before, back home, she had arthritis and scars from a life lived hard, but here that had all faded. Something about the water, wind and the plants made her stronger, healthier and younger.

Crystal looked like a woman of middle years, with a touch of silver in the long strands of her rich brown hair. There were fine lines covering her skin, not the deep furrows she had back home. She looked more weathered than old. Deep inside a part of her fought with the belief that she should look as old as she was. She had reached into her fifties before she tumbled into the hole. As the seasons moved here, she had been alive hundreds of years.

***

I do plan to finish these two tales sometime in the next few months and then I will have the same issues I had with Mythos. Editing, revising, editing, finding a beta reader or two and then publishing. Expect more excerpts from my other collections to come and of course my other novels.

Yup New Year’s Eve is tomorrow and another year is almost over. One of the things I have been doing this month is putting together the spreadsheets that a long time bookkeeper just can’t seem to avoid. I have been keeping track of my sales since I started publishing on my own and while it both excites and depresses me, it it a helpful thing. Well I expanded my spreadsheets to keep track of my flash fictions, of my word totals, works in progress…well just about anything that a writer should think about.

As I mentioned over on my Suteko blog, my numbers are pretty close to what I had last year. As of 8am on December 30th (yeah today) I am within three sales of my totals last year. The difference comes in that last year I mostly sold short stories and this year I have sold mostly novels and collections. So cashwise I have done better.

Here is the list of sales by Title. Now obviously not every title i have had a sale in 2014 but I expected that. In fact out of all my titles there is only one that has never had a sale, Goodbye Daddy, the nonfiction piece I put up under my pen name has never sold a copy. Not that I expected it to. Even if I never sell a copy of those Letters to the Dead, I will still write them and put them up. It is a catharsis for things in my past. But back to what did sell. Here is my list:

A Bargain made with Fur 10
A Different Kind of Hunt 1
A Moving Experience 1
A Trap of Eyes 2
All That There Was 1
An Evening of Note 1
And Darkness Claims It all 3
And He Makes three 1
Beginning Again 4
Blackbird 1
Cemetary Games 1
Cha-cha-changes 1
Christmas Snow 3
Death Comes softly 1
Death Is the Answer 3
Death Was the Bargain 3
Death Walks Through 11
Descents 1
Echoes of Elder Times 4
Endings 9
Escape 29
Fall Into Nightmares 4
From the Snow 2
Generations of Love 1
Gaurdian of the Gate City 5
Guess Wo Is Coming the Tanksgiving Dinner 3
Halloween Pranks and Mischief 3
Holiday Flashes of Fiction 8
Hope Everlasting 1
I Can’t Love You Anymore 1
Ice 17
If Shadows Could Speak 1
In Space No One Can Hear You Scream 3
It Jut Might be Gremlins 1
Love, Loss and Loneliness 1
Memories of Love 1
Monsters of the Dark 1
Never Pack Them Away 3
New Performaer 2
Night and Day 1
No More the Smiles 3
Not T oth Grave Go I 1
Not Jst Another Mornig of buiness 1
Now and Forever 3
One More all hallows eve 3
artings 2
Possibilities 1
Random Musings of poetic Mind 1
Rebirth 1
The Red Ghost Rides 5
Revenge 3
Smae Time Nexty Year at the Spaceport Cafe 7
Secrets can be deadly 1
Shadows on the Wall 1
Strange Nature 2
Sudden Disappearances 1
Surprises and Gifts 1
Test of Trust 1
The Dream Wish 2
The Knight Protctor 1
The Last Moonset 3
The Pest House 5
The Popsicle 5
The Traveler 10
The Words that Bring Peace 1
To Save Face or Family 8
Twas the NIght 1
Under the Black Bridge 1
When Witner Comes Roaring 4
Where Angels No onger Tread 11

As you can see some titles did better than others. Escape of course did the best because well, it was released this fall. That helped the numbers get up there after all. Now it is not my biggest seller of course. If I look at the spreadsheet totals certain titles are still up there.

Ice is still my most popular title with 44 sales so far (that is of course not counting and free copies that went out). Next up is The Traveler at 41 which is really nice. Finally is Endings (the first Loralil story) with 39. Now two of the three of these have been up for two years. Yes I realize these are small numbers compared to so many authors. I have author friends who see this type of sales in a day and I envy them for sure but well I just need to remember that some day I will be discovered. After all some of the most famous authors were not discovered till they were dead! Okay here is hoping I don’t take that long!

Now if you are wondering how many titles I put out in 2014 here you go.

In 2014 I either put out or was part of 22 titles. That is down from 2014 when I published/added to 50 titles but the break down shows why I did less.

Anthologies 3

collections 3

Novels 2

novellas 1

short stories 13

Okay maybe I didn’t write as much. Though to be honest the novels were some of my longest pieces of finished work. The collections have new stories in them of course.

Now one thing i did not list above was the amount of flash fictions I have been writing over the past year plus. See anything under 1000 words I decided needed to be put in a different list. So here goes.

Of the 174 flash fictions I have written, only 43 are from 2013. Most of those are drabbles from when I first learned of the short form. So 141 were written this year. And yes I plan on writing a lot more of them through out 2015. I have of course put up the covers for those collections.

Expect to see a lot more collections this year. I don’t plan on releasing single short stories as much anymore. While I will release the first in new collections, don’t expect a pile of shorts alone. While I am working on revising/editing an old novel and I have started working on a new Flights of Fantasy novella I think that most of my work in 2015 will be short story/flash fiction collections and the next book in my novel series. Have a happy new year!

Now usually I just post up excerpts and book covers or trailers but I thought, hey how about I put up chapters from those two still popular free fanfictions I wrote? A lot of you probably don’t even know about those two tales. Maybe you just weren’t interested in stories that aren’t original fictions. but I have always considered both Sins of the Father and When Shadows Rise as some of my better work. Okay yes, Sins was written twenty years ago. It has been read by a lot of people and to be honest if I was like a certain famous writer who converted her fanficion into a multi million dollar book and to be a movie, I would just change a few names here and there and whammo a possible best seller. Okay yeah I know I am not that great at marketing stuff but i know my ideas and tales are good. So here you go. I will be putting up a chapter a day/week till each of my fan fictions are up for people to read here. If you are interested enjoy. Who knows you might find yourself curious about the fiction that inspired the tales.

Today I will put up the first chapter of Sins of the Father. Now fresh edits, just the story as it was presented way back when. Why not read it and tell me if you think maybe i should make changes and turn it into a new and fresh book that isn’t fan fiction?

***

All characters copyright of Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan Inc. and Viz Communications. The character of Suteko Saotome is mine.
SINS OF THE FATHER
CHAPTER ONE
REVENGE FROM THE PAST
OR
GENMA GETS HIS!
by Lisa Williamson

Behind the Tendo Dojo lay a clear and small pool, surrounded by small rocks and boulders. Sitting quietly on one was a young woman. She was dressed like an American in jeans, a loose shirt and a leather jacket. Her black hair was pulled back in a tight pigtail. On closer examination there was something familiar about her features.

The sun’s first rays had touched the Tendo’s home and the first stirrings of the people within could be heard. Kasumi appeared at the kitchen window. She mixed various ingredients for the family’s breakfast. As usual, a wonderfully rich smell rose into the early morning air. Next to stir was Akane Tendo. She left her room and headed to the bath for her morning clean up. Sounds could be heard from the other rooms as Nabiki, Mr. Tendo and the Saotomes awoke. As usual, Ranma and Genma started their morning exercises. Today they managed not to damage anything and to stay dry. A very untypical day for them — they did not yet know just how untypical.

Kasumi called for everyone to come to the table. With a bit of bustle they got seated and the food was passed out and quickly consumed, faster by some than others. Before a battle could break out over the last of the biscuits Mr. Tendo spoke. “Well children, what do you have planned on this lovely spring day?”

“Business,” smiled Nabiki at Ranma who smiled back weakly.
“I thought I’d go shopping with friends today.” Akane answered with a happy smile. She was holding P-chan in her lap, feeding him bits of veggies from the table.
“Whatcha ya goina do, buy a new collar for P-chan?’ Ranma teased while poking at the little black pig. He pulled back a finger with P-chan attached. He started to shake him off as Akane prepared to hit him with her mallet. Their argument escalated and ended as usual with Ranma landing in the pool. As she got out, Ranma-chan noticed the girl who had been sitting patiently at the side of the pool. “Hello there. Who are . .?”
Before she could finish the girl stood up and spoke in a quiet voice. “I am looking for Genma Saotome. Can you tell me if he is here?” She bowed slightly. Her Japanese was good but contained a faint accent. Ranma bowed back and called over his shoulder.

“Hey Pop! There’s a girl back here who wants to see you!”
Genma and Kasumi came out the door into the backyard. Genma looked curious for a moment, then a bit sick. Kasumi walked over to Ranma with a pot of hot water. Ranma took the pot , and poured it over his head, thanking Kasumi. Ranma returned to his normal shape. The strange girl did not react to the transformation, her eyes glued to the older Saotome.

Genma swallowed and with a strong feeling of foreboding, spoke. “Hello, I am Genma Saotome. Can I help you?”
The girl took a few steps forward. Out of nowhere she pulled a carved staff and took a guard stance. “I challenge you in the name of Atsuko Fukushuu for the dishonor done to her seventeen years ago.” Genma’s eyes widened as he took in what the girl had just said. Everyone in the household looked first at Genma, then at the young woman. After a few seconds every head turned from the young woman toward Ranma and back again. Nabiki was the first to speak.
“Ranma,” she paused for a moment.

Ranma tore his eyes from the girl and turned to Nabiki. “What?”

“Does she remind you of anyone?”

“What,” he repeated, a bit confused. He turned back to the girl for a longer look, still puzzled. Nabiki snorted and splashed him. After Ranma-chan changed, everyone else caught on. The girl was a dead ringer for Ranma in girl form. The only difference was, the girl had black hair and green eyes. Ranma now turned to her father. “Pop, what’s going on here?”

Genma started to answer. “Ranma, I…”

“Answer my challenge, you philanderer!” Without waiting the girl moved in with lightning speed and landed a dozen or so blows with her staff before Genma could move. She stepped back and Genma looked dazed. After a moment he slowly sunk to his knees and fell face down on the ground.

“Pop!” Ranma rushed over to check her father. Genma was bruised and dazed but that was all. Ranma looked up at the young woman. “Why?”

“Ask your father,” she said, making the word sound like an insult. She looked down at Genma with contempt and started to turn away. Ranma jumped up, reaching out to stop her. Before she could, the girl spun about, blocking Ranma’s hand with the staff.

“DO NOT TOUCH ME!” She began to glow a deep gold. Ranma stepped back at the contained anger in those four words. Even Akane could not have sounded that deadly.

Akane stepped toward the girl and asked the question on every mind in the yard. “Who are you?”

Green eyes met hers for a moment and the girl spoke her name. “Suteko Saotome.” She then leapt to the top of the wall and said one last thing before she leapt away. “Tell my father, I will return tomorrow at dawn to finish this.”

Then she was gone. Ranma and Akane tried to follow but the girl had disappeared before they could get to the top of the wall. They continued over and searched for a few blocks. After several minutes they gave up and headed back to the Dojo. As they walked back, the began to talk.

“Ranma, what did she mean by ‘my father’? I thought you were an only child.”

“I am,” answered Ranma, puzzled. She remembered no sister. She kind of remembered the name the girl had challenged her father with. She just couldn’t put her finger on it. There was something from when her dad had been young.

****************

Back at the Dojo Genma was still lying on the ground. Soun walked over and was trying to get his friend to answer some questions. “Who is that child? I don’t remember any Atsuko. When did you meet one of the Fukushuu clan?’

Genma lay staring up at the sky. After a few minutes, he started to mumble. Soun bent down to listen. “Atsuko Fukushuu. It can’t be. It was only once. Wasn’t it? She said nothing happened. What will I tell Nodoka?” Still mumbling he got up and wandered off toward the house. Soun stepped quickly to his side and guided his old friend into the Dojo.

“Kasumi, I think we’ll need something stronger than tea here. Bring out the blue bottle please.” Soun called over his shoulder to his eldest daughter. For once he was acting like a man of his age. The state his friend was in had surprised him. This girl seemed to be no threat to his family. Definitely no rival for Akane, like the other girls who had shown up out of the past. After he settled Genma down on the couch, he thanked Kasumi for the small bottle and cup she had handed him. He poured a small amount into the cup and placed it into Genma’s hands. Genma stopped mumbling for a moment and lifted the cup to his lips.

Taking a quick swallow he closed his eyes. The drink burned its way past the confusion and cleared his mind. He took a deep breath. “Thank you, Tendo. I needed that.”

“Genma, what was that all about?”

“I’m not sure Tendo. I have to think for a few minutes.”

Genma stood up and started toward the house. “Can you send Ranma to me when he gets back?” He wandered off, less dazed but with nothing forthcoming. Soun looked after his friend with his confusion clear in his face.

Okay those of you who read To Save Face or Family might recognize the opening scene at the pool but that is all I lifted from this. Suteko and Destiny are two very different girls.

Because this was a fan fiction of Ranma 1/2, an anime, I of course needed to include the disclaimer. There are common themes in a lot of fiction of course and anime is a great place to get a feel to how to write them. This story was the first one I put out there for the world to see.

Back when I did this I had a tendency to put sub chapter titles on each work I did. I also have a fun fan fiction I wrote for Sailor Moon. I will post it up after I finish with Sins because in reality it led into When Shadows Rise.

To be honest of all the many fan fictions I have done, When Shadows Rise is the one I think would do the best as a novel. There are many rich characters that I wrote outside of the combined worlds of Ranma 1/2 and Sailor Moon. If I can figure out how to I just might make those changes and then release When Shadows Rise as a real honest to goddess novel. But that will be down the pipeline as i have fifteen collections to complete and publish, another novel in the editing phase and more than a handful of novels, never mind the many many short stories languishing in my WIP file. For you wonderful readers there will be no dearth of new fiction from me to read. Fiction, poetry and even non fiction under the pen name LA Mason. Hang in there, if you don’t like one, you will probably love the next. Thanks for reading. Any comments are of course gleefully read and answered (on my blogs of course). Till tomorrow!

Yup, Friday is one of the best days of the year. Halloween will be upon us in under five days! If like me you love good little tales based around the season, well I have a collection for you! Okay this is only one of the new anthologies I am a part of that will be out this week but as it is the first one up and ready for sale I thought I would post it up

Ode to Autumn – Season of Change, is a collection of stories and poetry from 18 different writers (me being one!) The tales are not all Halloween but that is fine. Autumn is a great time of year here in the north country. So if you want to read something scary, funny, dark, bright or just plain good, why not pick up this anthology. My tale, is in there but you have to read them all. You never know you might find a new indie author that you HAVE to read.